History of the Marimba

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History and Development of the Marimba

• The marimba is classified as an idiophone, instruments produce sound through the vibration of natural materials, according to Curt Sachs and E. M. Von Hornbostel
• The instruments are classified based on being struck, shaken, or scraped, and the material of the sound, whether wood, metal, or stone
• The marimba is a type of xylophone with wooden keys, distinguished by having resonators beneath each key that are tuned to it
• The earliest known instruments related to the marimba were found in Southeast Asia
• In 1949 French ethnologist Georges Condominas found a prehistoric lithophone with ten keys made of schist rock near the Vietnamese village of Ndut Lieng Krak
• Some consider it to be the oldest tuned instrument in existence
• Malays played a type of xylophone with a single resonator for centuries and reliefs from the 14th-century temple of Panataran in Java show this tradition
• In Java and Bali, the native "gamalean" orchestra contains bronze adaptations of two types of xylophones, the "saron" and the "gender"
• The "Saron" is said to have existed since 900 A.C., and has a wooden resonator, often dragon-shaped

Gender

• Gender dates back to around 1157, is a more complex metallophone with tuned bamboo resonators under each key
• The Gender is significant in the evolution of the marimba, appearing to be the earliest known struck xylophone with resonators attuned to the vibration of each key
• Not all examples of the saron and gender were metallophones; the wooden equivalents are still played in inland Bali
• Despite the marimba in Guatemala appearing to originate directly from Africa, it is likely its origins go back to Southeast Asia
• Sachs supports the idea that many tools, weapons, and instruments in the Bantu African district are closely connected to similar objects in Southeast Asia, pointing to early communication via the Indian Ocean
• Scholars like Hornbostel, Nadel, and Kunst agree that Southeast Asian musical instruments, particularly the "GemBang" and the "Gender" of Java, influenced the development of the African marimba

"Marimba"

• Occurance of the word "marimba" in Africa suggests a link between African and Guatemalan instruments
• The word "marimba," or "malimba" used by Bantu refers to idiophone with calabash resonators played by the Shangana-Ndau people along the coast of Mozambique near Sabi River
• The Chopí Bantus, located two thousand miles to the south, call the same instrument Timbila
• In a letter from 1562, the Portugese Padre André Fernández reported the first marimba in Africa
• The people are fond of singing and playing and their instruments are gourds strung with strings and wood bent as a bow with wax to amplify the instruments
• Later, a similar instrument was reported, among the Karangas of the Pungwe and Sabe rivers in Mozambique
• The principles and techniques of the Chopí "Timbila" construction are similar to those of the Guatemalan marimba de arco
• According to Hugh Tracey, the Chopí woodsmen are diligent in search, curating, and molding of wood for the marimbas
• Tracey reports upon gourds being used as attuned resonaters underneath the keys, with beeswax attached to aid vibrations
• Both guatemalan and chopí marimbas utilize similar bows to support the instrument away from the player's body during playing
• Description of the Guatemaltecan baquetas are the same as their chopí counterparts, describing heads that are larger around the low sounds and smaller around the high sounds
• The scale of the Chopí instrument is similar to that of the marimba de arco de Guatemala

Scale comparisons

• Chopí scale provided by Tracey : Fa Sol - Sol # / La + Re- Re # +
• Scale of authors of Timbila: Fa # Sol # La # Si + Re+
• Scale of the marimba de Arco : Fa Sol La Si Re Mi
• The Chopí timbila differs from the Guatemalan arched marimba in several ways
• The keys are made differently than in Guatemala
• Only one end of the key is sewn with a vertical hole , while the other end is held in place by straps passed up and down
• The timbila has one piece of lumber for every two keys, instead of pegs
• The resonators of the timbila are held using wax instead of suspension
• The timbila makes use of metal clasps to support the wooden boards underneath, while guatemalan don't
• The resonators in Timbila are two-piece, with beeswax applied to the neck of the gourd, referred to by Tracey as a 'trumpet'
• The chopí instruments are decorated with burnt holes, and the timbers are not hot-worked by guatemalans
• While the timbila has square corners, the guatemalan instrument is a one-piece semicircle
• While gourd varietals in timbila are round, varietals in guatemala are much longer
• The chopí instrument has 10-inch feet, which guatemalan instruments don't

Comparison

• Customs surrounding similar instruments are consistent, while different
• Players are predominantly male with a leader above them and in both iterations of the instrument, music is a family traditon
• Both indigenous and chopí varieties prefer to play collectively over solo, except for solo iterations of marimba de arco, which may contain drums and chirimía
• Chopí ensembles are similar to the javanese and balinese playing on the floor, which indigenous don't
• Both also learn from oral tradition, only to be entirely different stylistically in style
• Chopí play contrapuntally while indigenous players play harmonically
• Indigenous music includes a bevy of events like: the conquest, foreigners, celebrations etc which chopí use to to discuss social injustice

The Congo

• In Congo, a marimba de arco is present with a gourd soundboard, called Madimba which varies in size and makeup with the tribes and is referred to in many ways
• A peculiar manza instrument is the only reliable source of numbers
• The Congo also contains a multitude of idiophones with similar sounding construction and Olga Bonne hypothesizes this came from singular gourd evolution
• the Congo also has another possibility, with congolese taking instruments and immediately building them, seeing other tribes
• One proponent comes through means from the zambesi and limpopo rivers, with records showing a marimba there not long before it's depiction in congo
• West African and South East African scales are also quite similar
• instruments are used like tradition in guatemala, with men playing the free key varietals and fathers would teach both sons and daughters, oscillating between group sizes and individual preferences
• Similarly, music has a tendency to be played at night, and they believe air compliments acoustics and the African tend to improvise, with congolese using two hands, and the left accompanies
• In Congo, others are allowed to assist, striking keys on the lowest point for rhythmic effect

Westernization

• Occidental roots are mired in conflict
• A anthropologist suggests no determination is possible
• Some have alleged Mexico as its source, claiming Guatemela is first in time
• According to archeaolgists, in America, the instrument did not predate the columbian age and in no way resembles what little texts exist of precolonial times
• Not mentioned by explorers in colonization, one could assume the instrument was advanced and with high musical acuity
• the instrument was allegedly brought along with enslaved congoers in 1513 who, free of custom were able to build a marimba in Guatemala when in the past it was only for royalty
• The marimba also takes a place central in Maya culture in Guatemala, and they have been known to write on it in school, dance while courting and at weddings

Conclusion

• Although African in origin, the music was integrated into other aspects of Guatemalan life
• The Marimba used as religious instrument during ceromies in Santa Cruz and was introduced through the Spanish
• One author has seen it being played during native holidays like the blessing of seeds
• By order of Conquest, it was requested only drums and flutes be played
• The Mayans are speculated to have simply combined drums with wind instruments and made the instrument them selves
• The Chorti combined instruments, and the name “marimba” does not register in Spanish